AI gets parking slot at Heathrow

By Gargi Parsai

LONDON, JULY 31. Air India has won a day-time parking slot at the busy London Heathrow international airport for its Delhi-London terminator flight every Friday. It had been negotiating with British aviation authorities for months for such a convenient slot.

With the launching of this service, the Maharaja now has a daily flight to London. The daily flights include the Wednesday and Saturday frequencies through their code-share, block-seat arrangement with the U.K.-based Virgin Atlantic.

Two years ago India's national carrier had withdrawn the terminator flight from London, in addition to services to Rome, Montreal, Paris and Manchester. The airline had shrunk in a vain bid to enhance profits. Air India has now revived the Friday service to London and will launch twice weekly services from Mumbai to Hong Kong and thrice weekly to Singapore. As the market picks up, there are plans to enhance presence in Europe.

Under the bilateral air services agreement between India and the United Kingdom there are still three services between the two countries that are unutilised by Air India, the designated carrier for India. The Friday flight departs New Delhi at 9.45 a.m. and reaches Heathrow at 2.30 hours (London time). The return flight departs 10.30 p.m. and arrives Delhi at 11.20 a.m. It is geared to serve passengers coming from North India for onward connections to Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto in Canada.

It was with much fanfare - music, flowers and broad smiles - that Air India staff saw off the inaugural flight on a Boeing 747-400 last fortnight. There is an initial promotional return fare offer which is almost 40 per cent lower than the IATA fare. The offer is valid till August 10. It would have been extended but looking to the load factors, it is unlikely to be so, highly placed sources told The Hindu.

The inbound load factor on the Friday flight is already nearing 90 per cent. The outbound is at 50 per cent and picking up as the festival season approaches. According to Mr. Dilip Raw, the officiating regional director for Air India here, the airline's marketing plan focuses on the NRI and the ethnic passengers.

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Section  : International
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